Life

Don and Wurtele Master Monterrey, Mexico

Tim Don and Heather Wurtele ran their way to wins at the inaugural IRONMAN 70.3 Monterrey

By Shawn Skene

Set in Nuevo León's vibrant, cosmopolitan capital city, the inaugural IRONMAN 70.3 Monterrey is truly a destination race for athletes and their familes. A fast pro field was on hand along with over 2,000 age group competitors.

Don too strong on the run

In the men’s race, Ben Collins (USA) and Tim Don (GBR) showed the way out of the man-made Santa Lucia River with contenders Ivan Rana (ESP), local favorite Francisco Serrano (MEX) and Ben Hoffman (USA) less than a half a minute back.

Once on the bike Don and Serrano exchanged the lead early before Serrano took control. Behind the lead pair, Hoffman and Rana began losing ground. Making a charge towards the front of the race was former pro cyclist Hector Guerra. Now a triathlete, Guerra rode the fastest bike split of the day (by over five minutes), which allowed the 35-year-old to hold leads of 1:01 on Serrano and 2:25 on Don into T2.

Guerra started to fade immediately on the run, allowing Serrano to grab the lead once again. Don grabbed the lead by 4 km and steadily pulled away from the rest of the field. His race-best run of 1:13:38 propelled him to his first win of the year in 3:46:59, 3:18 faster than Serrano, who claimed second. Hoffman had a strong race and claimed the final podium placing with his 3:52:22 finish time.

Wurtele's steady bike and run get the job done

In the women's race Helle Frederiksen (DMK) headed into T1 first with Celine Scharer (CHE) on her heels. Karen Thibodeau (CAN) was over a minute back in third, with race contenders Heather Wurtele (CAN) and Cait Snow almost three minutes off the pace.

Wurtele proceeded to work her way through the field and into second place by 25 km of the bike ride, 1:25 behind Frederiksen. The Canadian remained patient and methodically chewed into Frederiksen lead, which put their closest rival (Snow) over eight minutes off the pace.

Wurtele had a tentative seven-second advantage over Frederiksen as the duo dismounted their bikes. Once on the run, Wurtele stretched out her lead with each passing kilometer as Frederiksen faded. Her solid bike and run allowed Wurtele to record a 5:49 win over Frederiksen. The fleet-footed Cait Snow’s fastest run split of the day was only 20 seconds faster than Wurtele's, but was good enough to allow the American to round out the podium.